Mistakes cost Sharks in Anaheim

ANAHEIM — Maybe it's not a bad thing that the Sharks rarely play both their California rivals on the same trip south.

Monday night, an ill-advised line change and multiple misplays kept San Jose on the skids as the Sharks dropped a 5-3 decision to the Anaheim Ducks in what the visitors hoped would be a bounce-back game after a troubling loss to the Los Angeles Kings 48 hours earlier.

The Sharks' scoring came from Jason Demers, Patrick Marleau and Matt Irwin, and Anaheim got two goals from Francois Beauchemin and one each from Peter Holland, Emerson Etem and Ryan Getzlaf. The defeat was San Jose's fifth in a row on the road, as the Sharks fell below the postseason cutoff line in the Western Conference.

The Ducks took a 1-0 lead in the first period when Joe Thornton's line picked the wrong time to head to the bench and Beauchemin fired the puck past Sharks goalie Antti Niemi on a 3-on-1 rush. Demers knotted the score at 19:02 of the first period when his shot from the right point eluded Anaheim goalie Viktor Fasth.

Three Anaheim goals less than three minutes apart in the second period put San Jose in a 4-1 hole, however. Holland started the run by capping off tic-tac-toe passing to make it 2-1 at 11:09, then Etem scored his first NHL goal 34 seconds after that on a perfect feed from Daniel Winnik. But the back-breaker came at 13:55 when Getzlaf scored short-handed.

San Jose edged back into the game when Marleau used Joe Pavelski as a decoy and beat Fasth with only six seconds left in the second period, and made it a one-goal game at 6:48 of the third when Irwin's shot glanced into the net off Getzlaf's skate. Beauchemin got his second goal of the game into an empty net at 19:14.

This was only the third time in franchise history the Sharks faced the two teams in succession on the same road trip.

Sharks owner Hasso Plattner is not ready to share his thoughts on the team's current struggles.

When Plattner announced Jan. 30 that he was increasing his majority interest in Sharks Sports and Entertainment by purchasing shares held by Kevin Compton and Stratton Sclavos, the German high-tech entrepreneur said he would continue their past practice of not commenting publicly about the team. All hockey questions were to be directed to general manager Doug Wilson.

At the time, the Sharks were 6-0-0; since then, San Jose has a 6-10-6 record after Monday night's loss.

In an email exchange, Plattner acknowledged that "the facts are the facts" as far as the team's wins and losses but declined to comment beyond that. Asked about accountability for players, coaches and the general manager, he again said all questions should be directed to Wilson.

Ryane Clowe sat out Monday night's game with a shoulder injury he aggravated Saturday in San Jose's 5-2 loss to the Kings. His spot in the lineup was taken by Marty Havlat, who missed the last seven games with a lower body injury suffered March 2.

Forward Tim Kennedy went on injured reserve hours before the game, clearing a roster spot so Havlat could be activated.

Unhappy with what he saw against Los Angeles, coach Todd McLellan made two other lineup changes, inserting Demers and TJ Galiardi into the lineup while benching Justin Braun and James Sheppard.

The Ducks announced Monday night that they had signed Corey Perry to an eight-year deal for a reported $69 million, locking up both him and captain Ryan Getzlaf for the maximum length allowed under the new collective bargaining agreement. Perry was the league's MVP in the 2010-11 season.